The end of March marked a brilliantly exciting time for Team Reid. Kyle aged. Luckily for us, he chose to do so in what is often billed as the most romantic city on Earth. Paris. These were our first steps on Continental European soil and we weren't disappointed.
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| Weeeee! We're in PARIS!!! |
We booked our Eurostar tickets quite in advance and then sat back and waited. To help get in the mood, we watched Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris. I'm not usually a fan of his, but this movie is a lot of fun. The first 6 minutes show idyllic Parisian scene after idyllic Parisian scene. The excitement started to build...
To cope, we put it to the backs of our minds. Which meant we arrived at Gare du Nord on the evening of Thursday, 29 March, with absolutely no idea about how to get from there to our hotel... A very nice Frenchman in the ticket office solved all our problems and only giggled a little bit as we bravely savaged his native tongue.
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| Our bike tour group |
Friday was pretty much all about the Eiffel Tower. Five minutes down the road from our hotel, we got our first glimpse. Brilliant. The world's most famous radio transmitter is pretty darn impressive. On a solid recommendation from a friend, we wandered underneath Le Tour Eiffel to find Fat Tire Bike Tours (yes, I know that's spelled wrong, but what can you do) for a four hour bike trip around the city. I started to panic on the way as I realised I hadn't ridden a bike that would actually move for about 10 years, but it turns out it's true what they say about riding bikes. Bike tours are the way to sight see, we've found. We got a great potted history of all the main sites in the central city and got to blitz through the streets with the wind in our hair. It was a really beautiful day too, which didn't hurt (a quick shout-out to the European ozone layer - you rock). We had lunch in the Tuileries Garden, where we learned about French gardening... and were all done by 3pm. A quick coffee and patisserie and back to the hotel for a quick rest, we were back into the city to forage for some dinner.
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| Picnic spot of awesomeness |
Buying picnic ingredients was a real highlight. We'd been told to expect French people to be rude... but we didn't get any of that. Apparently, so long as you give the language a try, they're lovely. We wandered down the Rue Cler, a street filled with boulangeries, charcuteries and every other 'erie you could want picking out various things. We got very good at saying "Bonjour! Je voudrais quatre (hold up four fingers) sa (point vigorously at the thing you want). Merci!" Worked a treat. We bought a swag of stuff and a bottle of wine and made our way back to le Tour. Kyle's birthday dinner was the best picnic ever underneath the Eiffel Tower. We found a patch of grass, spread our stuff out and nibbled happily as the sun went down and the lights on the Tower came up. God help me it was just like in the movies. Guys wander around trying to sell you bottles of champagne or a tiny (tacky and probably purple) miniature tower, couples stroll and canoodle, people walk their dogs, play football and so on. We made our way back to our hotel very full and very happy.
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| Just don't think about the power bill... |
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| Le Tour Eiffel - super photogenic |
Saturday's weather was sadly less fabulous. Some might even have called it grim. But, not to be deterred, we wandered up the Champs-Elysees to have a look at L'Arc de Triomphe. Then we wandered back down to Place de la Concorde to get a closer look at the Obelisk "on loan" from Luxor. During the French revolution, that spot was were Madame Guillotine was set up... For lack of anything better to do, we popped into the Musee d'Orsay to get some kulcha. Kyle decided that this was the museum for everything not considered good enough to get into the Louvre... Ouch. But perhaps fair.
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| Beautiful day at L'Arc de Triomphe |
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| Kyle with the Louvre's cast-offs |
That night we went to a restaurant for a dinner. While we waited for the place to pick up a bit, we popped into the Saint Sulpice church. Those playing at home will remember this as the church Silas gets sent to in the Da Vinci Code where he bops that poor nun on her noggin trying to find the holy grail. It was pretty atmospheric and beautiful in there and, thankfully, no nuns were harmed in our presence.
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| Everyone loves old Mona |
Sunday was Full. On. All museums are free on the first Sunday of the month, so we went to two. First up? The Louvre. Our bike tour guide had told us about a secret entrance mainly for locals, so we went there and shot straight in, rather than waiting to go through the main, pyramid entrance. HA! Straight to the Mona Lisa. There she was. Tiny. But still impressive and definitely the most popular piece in the whole place. We spent a good couple of hours in there and only managed to cover one of four or more wings. After a quick and sadly disappointing lunch, we were off into the Orangerie. This place used to be where the French Royals grew their oranges, but the building has now been purposely revamped to house eight of Monet's giant waterlily paintings. They were beautiful. And large.
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| 500ml - French for "medium" |
One last walk through the city (under the Eiffel Tower again, of course) and it was back on the Eurostar to return to London. We can't wait to go back. We didn't get to Notre Dame, the Sacre Coeur, Napoleon's Tomb, Monet's Gardens or the Catacombs. Next time, Paris, next time.
Au revoir
M&K xxx
